The Tear of Celeste

Chapter 23: Thoughts

After a moment you stand up to go back upstairs, trying to ignore the stinging in your hand which you could feel was slowly fading.

You have a lot of stuff to think about, so when you got to your room you laid down on the bed and just thought of everything.

You have been here for a very long time now, so long that you are pretty sure you are assumed dead back home, and you don't really know how to feel about that. You have a feeling you should be sad, but you are not. You would think about what that meant later.

You think about your time here, you already become such good friends with everyone here, it is truly shocking how well you click with them all, and you realize these people have become the best friends you have ever had, that thought brings tears to your eyes, both happy and sad.

You raise your hands above you, looking at them. They look healthy and strong, and you think back to your life before coming here. You always had a lot of energy, but you never had thought yourself superhuman, never ran as much as you had with Steve the other day, and never really done anything out of the ordinary.

You lower your hands as you wonder if maybe Stella didn't work in your world, being away from where she was born taking her power away too. That does not seem likely, but it's the best explanation you can think of right now.

You think about Stella too, Loki's story had convinced you that she was indeed alive at some point, and it pained you to think what Hydra must have done to her, stealing her from the night sky and breaking her to fit her into that stupid necklace!

The thought makes you sick and you turn onto your side, holding your stomach as nausea washes over you. You hoped that she could forgive you for wearing her like that, it seemed so cruel, but something in your mind soothes you, reminding you that you didn't know and that you always took good care of your necklace.

Stephen too is wearing an infinity stone in a necklace but in its original form. From the pictures of how Stella looked to how she did now there was such a massive change you are sure if she could feel pain, it would have hurt a lot.

You feel sicker thinking about that and sit up, wanting to pace around the room for a bit.

You notice you are sweating. You had not noticed how hot it was, it felt like a sauna in here.

You change into a T-shirt and shorts, but even that becomes too hot after a moment, and you change into a cropped tank top and skirt.

You realize your room might have been the problem, it didn't feel so stuffy on the couch earlier, so you make your way out of your room.

You think about Loki, about his whole 'I'm the villain' speech earlier, and smile to yourself as you are quite proud of turning his mood around, but then you went and made him tell the story about Stella, making him quite sad again. That was stupid of you.

You rub your forehead and squint your eyes, you realize that you have a headache, and it's making your sight blurry.

You groan from the pain and make your way toward the stairs. You know the medical cabinet is downstairs, Nat had shown it to you when you had needed some pain medication before.

You think about Nat and Clint and the soldier three as you started calling them. They had really been helping you train your body and push beyond your limits, but as your legs swayed slightly and you found your hand going to the wall for support, you wonder if maybe you have pushed yourself a bit too hard.

You make your way down the hall as you think about Tony and Bruce, they were always down in that lab, and they had talked about working on the Stella soon, doing more tests and scanning. It didn't seem like a bad idea to you, but it felt a little disrespectful.